Environmental groups called on Gov. Mike Easley and state legislators
yesterday to support their plan for cleaning up the state's air by
drastically cutting pollutants from coal-fired power plants.

The plan was released yesterday at a series of press conferences across
the state. Its sponsors said it would reduce smog, acid rain and mercury
poisoning in fish and improve visibility in the mountains by forcing power
companies to cut emissions of key pollutants by as much as 90 percent. The
cost of the cuts, if passed on to consumers, would amount to a little more
than $4 a year for each household in the state, they said.

"There is no reason to wait to improve air quality," said Michael
Shore, an air-quality manager for Environmental Defense. "Now is the time
for a plan that protects people, not outdated power plants."

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a related issue, ruled yesterday that the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can force North Carolina and 21 other
states to cut emissions from coal-fired plants that drift across state
lines to create smog in other states. The reductions demanded by the EPA
will come close to meeting the target for the smog-causing pollutants set
by the environmental groups.

North Carolina has acquired something of a reputation as a smoggy place
after finishing in the top 10 in a number of national reports on smog. The
number of days in which the air in parts of North Carolina was unhealthy
to breathe because of smog rose steadily from 25 in 1989 to 65 in
1999.

Ozone, the main ingredient in smog, can make breathing difficult for
those with asthma and other types of obstructive lung disease. Chronic
exposure can also harm agricultural plants and trees. High ozone levels
trigger more than 200,000 asthma attacks in North Carolina each year, said
Hope Taylor, a biochemist who heads the Clean Water Fund of North
Carolina.

Nitrogen oxides, which react with sunlight to form ozone, and sulfur
dioxide also form tiny particles that can clog lungs and lead to serious
health effects, including death, she said. More than 1,800 people in the
state die prematurely each year because of exposure to the particles,
Taylor said.

Those particles have also reduced visibility in the state's mountains
by more than 75 percent, said Denise Lee of the Blue Ridge Environmental
Defense League.

The 14 coal-fired power plants in the state account for 45 percent of
the nitrogen oxides, 82 percent of the sulfur dioxide and 65 percent of
the mercury discharged into the state's air. Duke Power Co.'s Belews Creek
Steam Station in Stokes County alone spews an average of 83,000 tons of
nitrogen oxides into the air each year.

Reducing those emissions by 80 percent to 90 percent from 1998 levels
could be done with existing technology, Taylor said. Polluted air, she
said, costs the state about $3.5 billion each year in health-care,
agricultural and tourism costs, far more than the $449 million it would
take to make the reductions.

Getting rid of the pollution won't be that easy or cheap, said Joe
Maher, a spokesman for Duke Power. The devices to remove sulfur dioxide,
commonly called scrubbers, can cost as much as $100 million for each
power-plant boiler, he said, and Duke has 30 coal-fired boilers.

"It's very important that any regulation be a regulation that is firmly
grounded in the real world, not just a number that somebody likes," Maher
said.

Easley hasn't seen the report, noted Fred Hartman, one of his
spokesmen.

Neither has state Sen. Fountain Odom, a Democrat from Mecklenburg
County. He is a co-chairman of the Environmental Review Commission, which
recommends environmental legislation, and says he drives a hybrid
gas-electric car because he's worried about air quality.

"So I'm supportive, but you have to very careful in imposing so many
expensive reductions in air emission when the surrounding states aren't
doing it," Odom said. "Most of the air pollution in our mountains comes
from Tennessee. You could shut us down and not do much to improve air
quality in the mountains. You could cripple our own economy."

Meeting the environmental groups' target for nitrogen oxides may not
require more regulations. The state's Environmental Management Commission
passed rules in the fall that should result in a 75 percent reduction from
1998 levels, Maher said.

The commission passed the rules after the EPA directed North Carolina
and other states to reduce emissions that were contributing to pollution
in other states. The commission took the action in case the Supreme Court,
as it did yesterday, turned down arguments by power companies and seven of
the affected states that the EPA had acted improperly.

"The report has a lot of good recommendations in it, and we'll be
looking at them closely," said Tom Mather, a spokesman for the N.C.
Division of Air Quality. "The rules that the EMC adopted go a long way
toward what these groups are asking
for."